The day I got banned from Gameworks

So many people, as it seems, would like to hear my story and take on what happened last week at Gameworks in Schaumburg, the venue of which I was recently banned from.

Let's start on the actual day of the incident shall we? So it was a normal Thursday evening at Gameworks. Me and quite a few other players were at the venue playing Technika 2, as we always do since it was "Play Your Way Thursday", an event that happens every week at 5pm and allows unlimited gameplay for the rest of the night for only $10. Its a great deal, and we always end up having a blast testing our skills on Technika 2.

To put it simply, it was like any other Thursday night. Everyone was shouting "YA YOU SUPA SONIKKK!!!" and failing stupid hard songs on Hard and Maximum. My good friend Todd was going to be moving to Ohio and we all stayed for as long as possible to hang out with this cool guy one last time before he left. 9pm rolled around and I managed to somehow get stamped as being over 21 years old (I am 20) when I am not. Gameworks becomes a bar after 9pm and therefor gives everyone under the age of 21 the boot. Because I got stamped I thought "oh might as well stay" and I played until around nearly midnight with the rest of my friends.

At around midnight a manager pops up and tells me to leave. He knew I wasn't 21 and told me to leave. I grabbed my things and started walking out. I told him I got stamped and that is the only reason why I stayed in the building. He kept asking me for a name of the person that stamped me, and I told him "Your guess was really as good as mine. I really don't know". When I got to the doors he yelled at me telling me "I swear to god, the next time I see you in here after 9pm, I am going to permanently ban you!" I told him it won't happen again and left.

So it was getting late and I was sitting at my house. I felt bad about what I did, but at the same time felt it was just as much the venue's fault for not properly IDing me. I was also told later that night that the manager was asking my good friend very personal questions after I was kicked out, all of which he refused to answer. My good friend finally said "Fuck off" to the manager (he actually did lol) and he finally left. The manager also decided to turn off the Technika 2 machine on the rest of the players about 30 minutes until closing. Apparently there was 4 or 5 players still there and I only actually knew two of them and both stories ended up matching.

In response to whole mix-up and funky night I deiced to contact one of the friendly supervisors at Gameworks. It was the only e-mail address I had for the venue anyways and I was hoping to apologize and give my opinion of the situation, as well as the entire story that unfolded that night. I explained in this e-mail my actual birthday, the entire story that unfolded as well as why the venue itself is also to blame. I told the manager to forward it to whoever he feels needs to see it and that I wasn't going to let another situation like this happen again.

The response? A "banned until further notice" e-mail from Gameworks, that also explained they are "fed-up" with me and the rest of the Technika 2 and DDR players. They also told me I could tell the rest of my friends that because of my actions they will no longer allow "Play Your Way Thursday" on the Technika 2 machine.

The response from the Gameworks Technika page was not blaming me for the my actions, but the venue as well, even after they threatened or actually did turn off the "Play Your Way Thursday" play on Technika 2.

So the question is, is the ban really fair? let's look at the actual things I have done for this business, shall we?
-I delivered the Technika 2 machine to Gameworks, on behalf of Pentavision and bemanistyle.com.
-I have spent THOUSANDS of dollars on not only games, but food and beverages as well.
-I have gotten many, many players to come and play at Gameworks, whether they are there every week or once a year.
-I offered to let them put my drummania machine on the game floor (FOR FREE), and they sat on the offer. In fact, they have never gotten back to us on any offer so far (Technika 2 and IIDX).
-I have helped the staff fix the DDR pads a number of times, and even know how to fix the major problems X2 is suffering from.

But wait! What have I done to offend this place so badly in the past?
-I stayed after 9pm until I was kicked out from a manager 2 or 3 years ago.
-I was told not to videotape gameplay of the machines. So I asked another manager a few weeks later if it was okay to tape the dance floor of the machines instead. I was told it was okay, and I was still yelled at by the same manager.

Lot's also not forget the biggest lol by the staff so far.
I was told by the main manager that because of my DDR videos, everyone cheats at the game. He told me because of my videos I corrupt the community and that because there is gameplay of the arrows, people memorize every step in the chart to cheat at the game. he then told me he could play at the same level I can and score just as well just by watching videos. Wtf?

So you can tell me, is it really fair? I understand that Gameworks can get in trouble for keeping a guest in the building once the place turns over 21, but it really is their fault imo for not doing a proper ID check like they are supposed to in the first place, regardless if I knew the rule or not. Plus its not like I did it to drink beer or alcohol anyways, getting me to drink pretty much never happens.

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This. Is. Terrible.

I mean, your friend was at fault for telling a manager to eff off, but you shouldn't be held accountable. That is just insane.
But about that "cheating" thing, lolwut on that. I can look up Youtube videos for any tohou shmup, but I sure as heck cannot play them to perfection, even though I have been watching for hours on end.

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So they made an error and used that as an excuse to ban you?

What a load of cunts.

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Not only ban him, but take away Technika 2 for EVERYONE else. I mean, isn't that a bit excessive?

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Wow, my Gameworks here (before it closed down) NEVER had an under 21 curfew of any kind ever.

That manager is one smart ass.

Of course, you were definitely done wrong there.

You should've dared him to do songs you do. Heck, to spite him, it would've been good to pay for the credit. Trust me, it'd be worth it. What did he mean by cheating? Memorization is not cheating; most songs can be memorized on CS games.

Challenge him to do so.

Piss in his mouth when he fails.

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Yikes. Kinda makes me glad that the Indy location was bought by Tilt even though it was the arcade's decision, not Sega's.

The manager there sounds like a freaking idiot and doesn't know what to do. I love those people. It makes me wonder how they manage to get that high of a position o.O

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My experience has been that Gameworks (any Gameworks) doesn't care about people, only money. This only reinforces that understanding.

Other people get fired or someone from another store quits; they get promoted. It happened to my stepfather.

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My Gameworks became GameTime.
When they were transferring credit, they messed up and my 100cred became like...1000 or something.
They thought I had a machine at home to make it go up whenever I wanted because I came there often and didn't pay a penny.
They kicked me out.

This really is the pinnacle of stupidity.

I was once accused of wirelessly hacking a DDR machine because my notebook open was near the machine.

I'll give you a hint.

:>=

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If you want to get to the top you have to suck a LOT of cock.

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A female boss is hard to fill with content.

But she is easy to fill with man-batter.

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Kon, if I was there, I would've ripped those employees and managers apart limb from limb. That Gameworks has turned into a dictatorship. I say we grab all of our greatest weapons of torture and storm in to reclaim what is rightfully ours.

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How very Christian-like.

It wasn't right what they did, and I doubt God would have any mercy on them.

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